If you’ve visited Mappalicious in the past, you might have encountered Emilia Lahti, a fellow Penn Mappster from Finland. Currently, she’s in the process of writing her Ph.D. on Sisu, which is a Finnish word for the concept of strong determination and hardiness in the face of severe adversity. It´s an integral part of the Finnish culture and belongs to a set of untranslatable words that researcher Tim Lomas has written about.

Now, ever so often research is actually me-search. Emilia is a victim of domestic abuse and has started a project to raise awareness around this crucial issue. In 2017, she’s going to run 1,500 miles across New Zealand in 50 days – that’s roughly a marathon per day. She will perform this outstanding feat to support her initiative “Sisu not Silence”. If you´d like to find out more about this and maybe even donate, you can learn more here.

Today, Emilia was featured in an awesome video on NowThis. Go have a look…